Like a slow-motion car crash, you could see this coming.
Rafael Benítez had described his return to Real Madrid — the club where he had grown up and coached at youth level — as a “dream job”. It turned into the sort of dream featuring Freddy Krueger.
It is not that he was unfit to manage Real Madrid. It is that he was clearly the wrong choice to take charge of this particular group of players at this particular time.
Florentino Pérez, the club president, once said that he viewed his club as the Harlem Globetrotters of football: equal parts showbiz, entertainment, cash cow and, yes, with maybe a bit of competitive sport thrown in too. His approach, especially after winning the Champions League in